300 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
them a proper supply of food. Sometimes the young birds are destroyed by pike, 
or fall a prey to rapacious birds. They are extremely active, and elude pursuit by 
diving and remaining under the water, with nothing but the bill above. I once 
came upon a whole brood of half-grown ducklings in a ditch, when in a moment 
they all disappeared under the water, and, although I searched everywhere for them, 
did not succeed in tracing a single individual. 
When the young are well grown, and the female replumed, the male commonly 
joins the flock, and they continue together. Several flocks often unite, but gene- 
rally these birds are not very gregarious. Being highly and justly esteemed as 
food. Mallard are shot in great numbers, and are plentiful in our markets. 
Although they are of a more elegant form, and much more active than the domestic 
ducks, the latter often resemble them so closely in colour, as hardly to be distin- 
guishable. 
Once, in the Outer Hebrides, when journeying across a moor, I met with a pair 
in a small lake overhung by a rock, from which I could easily have shot them, had 
I not supposed them to be tame ducks that had strayed to a distance from the 
huts, some of which were about half a mile distant. The young obtained from 
eggs hatched by domestic fowls generally make their escape. 
This species is found in all the northern and temperate parts' of the old con- 
tinent, and is equally met with in America as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. 
‘‘Although great numbers resort to the Arctic regions to breed, multitudes 
remain in all the temperate districts. 
“Whether any immigration from the north takes place with us in autumn is 
not apparent. During winter the species is found in the most northern parts of 
Scotland, as well as in the most southern of England. It is common in 
Ireland, where, although great numbers immigrate every winter, the species 
breeds throughout the island. 
“ Mr. Burnett, of Kemnay, has favoured me with the following note respecting 
Mallard, as observed in his neighbourhood : — 
“ ‘ It is very plentiful in all our marshes and wet moors. It is to be seen on the 
Don, but not often, and only in certain spots, in the winter, particularly in time 
of hard frost. It feeds at night only, when it dives, but never so by day. In 
spring its principal food is frogs and their spawn, to obtain which it resorts to the 
marshes, where these animals most abound, and wherever wild ducks are numerous, 
are to be seen the mangled remains of these reptiles. They are also destructive to 
corn in the neighbourhood of their haunts, to which in general they are steadily 
attached. They breed in the month of April, mostly in marshy spots and bushy 
ponds. I have got a nest in a dry spot among furze, far from any water. The 
eggs are carefully concealed and covered up when the bird is off them. The attach- 
ment of this species to its young is very great. When a person approaches them, 
the parents go up to him, put themselves in his way, flutter on the ground before 
him, and run to induce him to follow. On visiting the pond at the north mill of 
Kintone last summer, I saw several broods, the parents all acting their parts 
